Pop Quiz: John Oates of Hall & Oates

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, July 29, 2007

Daryl Hall, left, and John Oates perform on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art during an Independence Day celebration in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 4, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Daryl Hall, left, and John Oates perform on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art during an Independence Day celebration in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 4, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Photo: Matt Rourke

Pop Quiz: John Oates of Hall & Oates

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Sampled by Kanye West, covered by the Gym Class Heroes and icons to everyone from Justin Timberlake to Death Cab for Cutie, Hall & Oates are like some kind of pop-music gift from outer space. More specifically, a totally awesome planet that truly appreciates Philadelphia-bred rock 'n' soul as played by a couple of dudes with rolled-up satin jacket sleeves and at least one prominent mustache. The most successful duo of all time plays Wednesday at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco and Friday at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. We spoke to John Oates from his home in Colorado.

A: I haven't had the mustache since 1991. It's weird, but there's this whole younger generation that has this nostalgic thing for my mustache. It's taken on a life of its own. One girl even sent me a movie she made that was like an ode to my mustache.

Q: It was a very important mustache.

A: It's become this weird '80s iconic thing. I did this Handsome Boy Modeling School record with Dan the Automator where I had a collaboration with Jamie Cullum, and when I finally saw the cover they were wearing these mustaches. It took me a while to figure it out, but it was some kind of weird reference to my old '80s look.

Q: Do you miss it?

A: No. It was the old John. I've shed my skin.

Q: Maybe you should send the mustache out on its own tour, and then everyone will shut up about it.

A: It could go on tour on its own. It's taken on a mythic quality.

Q: How many stylists did Hall & Oates run with back in the day?

A: We were always our own stylists. People now have all these stylists and hairdressers and bodyguards. We've never had any of that. People always accused us of being manufactured by this pop machine. We were about as natural as you can be. We styled ourselves. We made our own album covers. We did our own music. With us, what you see is what you get.

Q: That must explain the famous photo of you on the scooter where it looks like you're wearing women's sandals.

A: Let me just explain something to you. In the '70s, there were a lot of men dressing as women. There were a lot of really small-type clothes going on. That's just what it was. Especially in a style-conscious place like Philadelphia. We were hip dudes. We were making the scene.

Q: You don't have to tell me. I have all your album covers framed on my wall.

A: That's amazing, because a lot of them really sucked.

Q: Do you ever feel a bit silly singing some of the older songs, like "Maneater"?

A: "Maneater" is one of those songs that, if it wasn't so popular, we might drop it from the set. But we actually start the show with it. I love the fact that we can start the show with a No. 1 record and end it with one as well, and play a whole bunch more in the middle. That song really does capture a moment in time. It sums up what was going on in New York in the '80s and the people I was hanging out with at the time.

Q: Who was that?

A: That was an amalgamation of a bunch of models and girls I knew. It was that whole crackpot, Gordon Gekko philosophy that pervaded the entire era: Greed is good. Spend it now.

Q: So you went from hanging out with models in New York to hanging out with llamas in Colorado?

A: I've got llamas, emus, turkeys. I moved to Colorado and married a farmer's daughter and learned to become a rancher and had a son. That and shaving the mustache are the best things that happened in my life. {sbox}